Morning all.
Sky Sports:
- Willian could be heading to Corinthians.
- Lucas Torreira is close to joining Fiorentina.
- Crystal Palace are one of a few clubs keen on signing Eddie Nketiah.
- Fenerbahce are interested in Sead Kolasinac.
- No offers or interest shown in Hector Bellerin, Reiss Nelson, Mo Elneny, Alex Runasson or Ainsley Maitland-Niles. Yet!
We’re down to eight. Eight days left in this transfer window I mean and not the number of players Mikel Arteta has missing from his squad. Or was it nine? Nine could certainly leave yet, that’s for sure.
I think other clubs will come in for our players during the next week. I’m not at all fussed about Willian or Kolasinac leaving, the sooner the better in my opinion but Eddie, Torreira, AMN and even Nelson, could still offer the first team something. Come January, Partey, Pepe and Aubameyang will on duty at the African Cup Of Nations. Elneny too if he doesn’t leave beforehand.
Imagine though, if Arsenal were to sell the nine players as listed above before this transfer window closes, where does that leave the squad? Short? Weaker?
Goodness knows what’s happening about the right-back situation and I’ve no idea where our goals are going to come from. Auba and Lacazette hardly set the world alight last season as far as numbers go, nor did Pepe or our midfield. It sounds like I’m moaning but honestly I’m not, I’m just genuinely concerned about our season ahead.
Aubameyang, Lacazette, White, Gabriel and Partey have all missed one or both of the opening two fixtures. Whilst they might not make a difference to the team individually, collectively, they are a huge miss. Our midfield without Partey is very much weakened and a midfield of any team is essential to the way it plays. Lacazette might not be the perfect striker but he brings others into the game and as we saw last season, put him in a team with young energetic players around him, he comes alive. Gabriel is better than Mari. I don’t think White can be judged after just one game.
I’m not trying to defend Mikel Arteta or justify why Arsenal’s opening two performances have been so poor, but surely with such big players missing, many teams wouldn’t be at their best? Also, let’s not forget that Arteta has been without his captain and on paper, the club’s best striker and, because of Visa issues, Martin Odegaard.
For the first time in years, an international break comes at a good time for Arsenal as its allows the above players more time to recover. If Arsenal can go into the next period of fixtures with a fully fit squad, then perhaps we’ll see improvement.
Based on logic alone, I don’t think the club have any intention to replace Mikel Arteta any time soon and certainly not whilst he’s having to juggle his squad around because of circumstances which are out of his control. The club have backed him financially so why on earth would they then turn around and say goodbye so soon?
The Telegraph reckon that Mikel Arteta has until the October international break to improve things. Otherwise Antonio Conte will get a phone call from the club. The same paper suggests the club are willing to sell Aubameyang before deadline day.
See you in the the comments.
I didn’t know that Andrew. That’s the last thing Arsenal need.
New post up now
If that’s true, we don’t need him Andrew-we are still getting rid of that crap lol
It’s been reported a few times that Aouar is part of a group of dressing room troublemakers that Lyon want to now move on. Sound familiar?
I hope he says no.
Spuds have been given permission to approach him,
Houssem Aouar, paper talk I reckon.
Morning all.
It was Kev and people can’t have it both ways imo. Sadly, the nature of the beast which is football, fans get cheesed off when things on the pitch are sour. The abuse used to come from the stands but of course, it’s now extended to social media, a platform which has given everyone a voice.
Also, we can’t pick and choose who it’s ok to direct abuse at to suit our agenda. How can it be unacceptable to have a rant at Edu and his wife etc, but it’s ok to direct abuse towards the Kroenke family.
Cicero I agree we need a striker because we can’t rely on Auba or Laca
The last thing we need is another midfield scuffler. It’s goals that win games not endlessly passing the ball around the pitch. BUY A STRIKER!!!!
Geoff,
We apparently looked at him quite recently, so the rumours go.
Plenty rate him very highly.
Reports claiming Arsenal been given the all ok to Get Houssem Aouar on loan, didn’t Arsenal Wenger try to buy him.
I agree Kev, but the fact remains “fan” abuse is to blame for the situation.
Of course, when celebrities/athletes fault to be active on social media, they’re seen as arrogant and dismissive of fans.
Hard situation imo
Wasn’t it Edu’s wife that put those ill-advised posts on Instagram or some other platform of him on holiday when everyone was freaking out over transfers back in the UK.
If you are in the public eye and in a high profile job you’re asking for trouble if you put yourself out there on social media as there’s plenty of media outlets, click bait sites and such like that’ll trawl social media for anything to shit stir and she dropped her husband right in it…
Not smart!
And yet you didn’t blame the fans?
Fair enough.
Scott Edu’s daughter was abused on her Twitter or one of those types of accounts not at the game, going by the report the abuse was aimed at Edu and it was about the Way we are playing not his family.
Nobody supports any fan that abuses any player or officials family but saying that all players and officials now they will get abused and bood if they play crap. Fans pay top money for there memberships and game tickets so they expect to see a competitive game
The video shows Edu ignoring the fan it was his wife who responded and as I said at the start my concern was that there was young children in between Edu and the fan who could of got seriously injured
His daughter was abused.
The “fans” created this situation, not Edu and his family.
I disagree, Rico.
Apparently the manager of West Brom is going to use tomorrow’s games to have a look at some of his youngsters and fringe players.
Do you all remember when we used to do that…
How times change.
Jm first goal WBA
Clean sheet. No
Neither hopefully.
No, no and no Jm.
Forecasts for tomorrow’s game?
1st goal?
Clean Sheet?
William and Kolasinac in the line up ?
😂
A few years back I joined the Neighbourhood Watch organisation.
In the light of recent police announcements that they will no longer attend the scene of domestic burglaries I have taken down the St Georges flag from beside the house and peeled the burglar alarm sticker off the front door. We’ve disconnected our home alarm system and quit the Neighbourhood Watch.
I’ve bought two Pakistani flags on ebay and raised them in the front garden, one at each corner plus a black flag of ISIS in the centre. Now the local police, CID, M15, SAS and other counter terrorism agencies are all watching the house 24/7.
We’ve never felt safer. And we’re saving £9.95 a month.
😉
Of course they’re fans Scott, to suggest they’re not is ridiculous imo. Yes, they might be foolish for behaving the way they did in this case, but I you, or anyone are not entitled to question their support for the club.
You need to remember, Arsenal fans are frustrated and vent their fury in different ways.
Nail on the head Potter. The troubles we have is not necessarily about individuals but more the team as a whole which looks dysfunctional imo.
From having the 3rd best defence, we’re heading towards having one of the worst.
Scott According to the store I read the abuse was at Edu and not his family and I didn’t say Edu or his wife should have to except it, what I said was her reaction could of made things a lot worse and if this guy had retaliated these kids could have got seriously injured.
How can you say this guy is not a fan yet you have a go at the owner,
What this guy said and done was let out his frustration at how bad we are but at the same time Edu’s wife needs to remember that Edu may be her husband but on match day he is there with as a representative of the Arsenal board and her reaction could be taken by some in the media as to what Edu thinks of fans.
Geoff.
How can you suggest that the victims of abuse here could be held accountable for any further trouble?
Some fans think they can say and act how they want with no consequences at all.
How would you react to some drunken moron abusing your family over football?!!
Fans-they’re not fans.
Mail online showing a video of Edu’s wife giving the middle finger to a fan who had a go at Edu not very smart when there is little kids in between them, these kids could of got hurt if the fan took it any further
G’day all.
At the end of last season Holding and Mari had established a good understanding and the defence looked relatively solid. Fast forward to this season and Arteta dumps Holding to play the new boy thus breaking their partnership. Chambers was also part of the successful defence playing at right back and started at Brentford,
Against the Chavs, the new boy was out with Covid so back came Holding, all well and good but then Arteta drops Chambers in favour of the out of favour Cedric. Thus further breaking up the successful defensive partnership. He then hooks off Cedric and puts on, at right back, Tavares who is a left back. Claudio Ranieri was known as the tinkerman, but Arteta is bidding to take the title for himself.
George Graham built a back line that come hell or high water he stuck with, they played as a unit not as a collection of strangers.
I think Mari would be looking to pick up Lukaku , but if your fullback is dragged out then it’s the job of his midfielder to cover in this case Saka should not have been strolling back but should have busted a gut earlier to be there.
My points however are not to castigate individuals rather to point out that defensively we are not working as a unit .
Football is a relatively simple team game made complicated by individual errors . Maybe until we get our team up and running we should concentrate more on not losing than we seem to be at present.
I don’t agree. I blamed him for the James goal not Lukaku’s.
Why did he come across in front of Mari to cover Mount? Ends up in the box next to Mari and then needs to cover the space he left out on the left.
Even though Xhaka fouls Lukaku, Mount is still Mari’s man and Tierney was out of position.
Brad if Xhaka hadn’t let his man go , Tierney would not have had to come inside . Thrughout Tierney got little support from either Saka or Xhaka .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1R3Ko1YS28 stop at 18 seconds and freeze frame .
Kovacic is in acres of space none of ESR , Sambi or Xhake go to him . and are wandering with no-one Tierney is touch tight . Kovacic has all the time in the world to pick his pass and James exploited the space.
It’s easy to say that it’s the left back at fault because the cross came from the right but as always there is a bigger picture.
The second one (40 seconds) Xhaka has just fouled Lukaku the ref is playing advantage , Tierney is trying to close down Mount but look where Saka is .
Playing midfield is not just about looking good and going forward it’s about awareness and looking around and sensing danger.
Something our young ones have not learned yet
Brad the way It seemed to me Tierney left his man to try and cover 2 other Chelsea players because our back line were too slow to get back and cover their man,
I don’t think we can blame 1 player for the loss to Chelsea we bad both on and off the pitch, let’s see what happens over the next few matches and the rest of the transfer market does.
True, but Arteta needed to tell our forward left to track back.
But for the goal, he was not supposed to be there, why drop next to the CB, surely as a RB the flank is your baby. In the absolute least the angle from your flank should be covered if you feel the need to be in the box.
I like the guy too but bad defending stays bad defending.
I wonder if Arsenal are the PL reported to have made an offer for M’bappe…. 😳
Atletico are reported to want either Lacazette or Aubameyang in exchange for Trippier.
I’m with Adam re Tierney Brad, he was getting no help whatsoever during the game yet it was clear Chelsea were targeting that side. Certainly early on.
True Kev but I think the decline started before they arrived. I’d like them gone by the way, I’m certainly not trying to defend them at all and they’ve certainly left the club to drift alone on a steady decline.
Morning Geoff, we all do. Lol
Tierney had zero cover throughout the game though..
Hi all,
Happy he is off and Edu can put up his hand and say we gambled and it did not come off.
We look a shambles at the back when we were so solid last season. The positioning is poor, clearances we can’t even get it past our ’22’, Tierney was at fault for James goal as there were men in the box and that’s his flank/man. Set pieces we are so poor even with a new coach. The back 4 are experienced players, not youngsters but look all out to sea.
Well they hire the people at the club who run the operation don’t they Rico, they sign off on all the big decisions made so they’re fingerprints are over everything.
I just find it odd how our decline and their influence at the club run so side by side.
Fenway haven’t spunked loads of money have they, they’ve just been better at running Liverpool and hiring the right people.
Morning Rico and all
I hope we do get rid of Willian.
The way I see it Arteta and Edu believed that Willian wanted to stay in England and he had a future with us helping the younger players, were Willian had no interest in us and only used us hoping that another club would come calling in 6 to 12 months with a bigger offer.
Morning Kev. I don’t see where the owners fit in right now. Yes they’ve been rubbish in the past as far as investments go but they’ve got right behind Arteta this summer and as far as moving players on goes. If they get involved in that kind of stuff of course, my opinion is they just let the board get on with it.
It’s the same old thing though, when the football is poor, Kroenke comes into the conversation.
Morning Doomers, morning Rico.
Yes it’ll be like the January sales for the next few days, clubs will want to sell to buy, others will want to buy before they’ll sell, prices will fluctuate, some clubs will take financial hits, others will hit the jackpot, although we won’t read about those that’ll take a hit we’ll only hear about Arsenal taking a hit because that’s the narrative.
Interesting stat that I heard yesterday that over the last 10 years the only Premier League clubs to spend less than Arsenal in the transfer market are Norwich, Burnley and Newcastle, so it seems that these last two years could be KSE desperately trying to recover the ground and value that we’ve lost in the previous 8 years due to their parsimony and politicking as they forced out Usmanov.
How on Earth are we ever going to recover from where we were under this ownership?
I’m afraid that it’s too late, that train has left the station.
We spend a record £132m but Man City, Man Utd and Chelsea just stretch away even further. Stan and Josh talk about competing but it’s just empty talk, they wanked away our advantage by trying to be smart arses and now that advantage has long gone and we’re fighting it out with Leicester, West Ham, Leeds, Everton and Brentford.
Where we are is on KSE and KSE alone.
A fish rots from the head doesn’t it?
Absolutely agree too Potter, which is why we get freak results every now and again. Was is West Brom who thrashed Chelsea last season? As a great sportswoman once said, it’s not always about good a player, or in this case a team is, it’s about how good that person is when they’re playing badly.
Sometimes you just have to concentrate on nullifying the opposition strengths to get a result.
Ben needs a quality right back alongside him surely.
Morning Adam, all.
Agree re Willian but now we’re going for Trippier. Lol
Even Wenger did it to United when we won the cup on penalties . It’s not new , 5 at the back 4 in midfield with pace up front . Suck them in and one quick break and Bob’s your uncle.
Worth a try and if they score ? Change it.
But plan it before you get there.
Potter. Completely agree. In this way we have often seen lesser teams defeat bigger and better ones. Frustrate them, rather like Spurs did against Man City and then try and hit them on the break. At least try and do something that causes them to think rather than just stay in a pre-loaded rigid formation and let them bully us. That really pisses me off.
If you can’t win then the first line of tactics is to do everything to make sure that the other team doesn’t either.
Totally agree Adam going toe to toe with a superior army never works .
We could call it illogical or plain stupid or to be kind just Naive.
If as claimed you are short of 5 first pick players and a few first reserves then you must adapt to try and stave off defeat.
Morning Rico. Willian leaving is almost as good as a new player coming in. I sincerely hope that Mikel and Edu never make that daft mistake again.
I know that the missing players cost us but surely, if you know that your opponent is stronger man for man then you need to come up with some innovative tactical plan (or even a tried and tested one) to balance or at least neutralise that difference. From what I can see, we just aren’t doing that right now.
That’s where the frustration comes from I would think.